


from what i've tasted of desire

by vesperal



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Enemies to Lovers, Explicit Sexual Content, Implied Switching, Kidnapping, M/M, MAMA Era Powers (EXO), Non-Graphic Violence, Porn With Plot, descriptions of injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:08:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24101107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vesperal/pseuds/vesperal
Summary: Minseok and Chanyeol are polar opposites - fire and ice. Sometimes, the line between love and hate is thin, and blurry.
Relationships: Kim Minseok | Xiumin/Park Chanyeol
Comments: 12
Kudos: 45
Collections: binghuo fest round two / 2020





	from what i've tasted of desire

**Author's Note:**

> prompt no. R3.020: Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. In which Chanyeol and Minseok are bitter rivals.
> 
> when i saw this prompt i absolutely Had to choose it, i love this poem so so much and i also really wanted to try out the enemies to lovers dynamic because i've never done it before. however the deadline crept up on me and i realize that this is probably a lot shorter than what you wanted, dear prompter. i apologize for that, but i hope you enjoy it anyway
> 
> proofread but unbetaed - please excuse any mistakes

Minseok, for all that he tries to stay out of trouble, has never had a particularly relaxing life. It comes with the job, he supposes – and the job, well, that came with the rest. The rest being: the supernatural powers he’d been born with that had both confused and terrified his parents until they’d eventually taken him to see a specialist doctor, whereupon they had been told that there was, in fact, nothing wrong with their son. He was just – special, was the word they had used.

People like Minseok, people with _powers_ , aren’t all that rare these days, but they’re not exactly common, either. And the extent of Minseok’s powers had been a little concerning at first – as stoic and silent as the ice he embodies is, Minseok had not been a stoic and silent child. He had been prone to temper tantrums and random bursts of energy that regularly froze all the pipes in their house and killed his mother’s beloved flowers. But as he had grown up, he had become more grounded, more settled, and he had learned to embrace his powers, to channel them and _use_ them instead of just letting them take control of him.

And so, unlike all the other kids in his year at high school, Minseok hadn’t needed to think twice about what career he wanted to pursue. That decision had been made for him the day he was born with ice flowing through his veins. The day after graduation, he had ambled over to the government office in charge of assigning tasks to what they called “exceptionally gifted individuals”, and he had signed his life away to serve his city.

Most days, he doesn’t resent it. Sure, he hadn’t been given much of a choice, but he’s happy doing what he does, protecting the more vulnerable citizens of Seoul from those who would seek to harm them. The pay is good, he gets to maintain anonymity and protect his identity, and, well, shooting icy throwing stars at bad guys is pretty fun.

But some days, he really wishes he could just quit his job and go live as a hermit up in the mountains for the rest of his life. It would be boring, sure, but at least he wouldn’t have to deal with Chanyeol.

Chanyeol is, simply put, the bane of Minseok’s existence. Sure, he’s an evil super-villain, and his fire powers are both extremely dangerous and very well matched against Minseok’s ice powers. But above all, he’s an _insufferable little shit_.

Minseok still remembers the first time he’d met Chanyeol, almost three years ago now. The former had been keeping police at bay with a massive wall of flames while his accomplice robbed a bank in central Seoul, and Minseok had been assigned to the scene, because he was close by, and because the higher-ups felt that his powers would be effective against Chanyeol’s.

The first thing Chanyeol had said, after laying eyes on him in his skin-tight, pale blue crime-fighting outfit, was “You’re shorter than I expected.”

That first taunt had been followed by several others, something about ‘the great Xiumin’ not looking like much, but by that point the blood rushing in Minseok’s ears had blocked out Chanyeol’s annoying, deep ass voice. And for the first time since he was a child, Minseok had exploded, letting his power tear its way out of him with a scream that rattled in his lungs, eyes squeezing shut. When he had reopened them, Chanyeol was on his ass in front of him, his flaming wall completely extinguished, looking completely shell-shocked. Several of the buildings surrounding them had been damaged as well, but in that moment that had seemed like an insignificant detail to Minseok. He had been more interested in beating the absolute crap out of Chanyeol, which he had proceeded to do, although Chanyeol had put up an impressive amount of resistance.

But he had underestimated the force of Minseok’s anger, and soon enough he and his accomplice had been in handcuffs. Minseok had been simultaneously congratulated and reprimanded by the higher-ups for managing to both subdue Chanyeol and inflict more damage on the neighborhood than the villains had, and he had thought that was that – that he would never hear from Chanyeol again.

Unfortunately, he had been very wrong. Chanyeol had escaped from his jail cell only a few weeks later, and ever since he has been the bane of Minseok’s existence.

The worst part is, he hasn’t managed to beat him since that first time, now that he no longer has the element of surprise, and Chanyeol is far more insufferable when he knows what to expect, instead of being knocked on his ass.

So, when he spots a pillar of smoke rising towards the sky on the horizon, he can’t hold back his exasperated groan. _So much for a quiet weekend_ , he thinks wryly, before hopping onto his motorcycle and speeding through the streets of Seoul towards the source of the fire.

When he gets there, the street is suspiciously empty. He frowns. Chanyeol isn’t one for underhanded tactics. He likes to confront Minseok head on, to send hot flames shooting towards him until they’re both exhausted and panting but still refusing to let the other get the upper hand.

Minseok looks up. Smoke still hangs heavy in the air, obscuring the sun, so Chanyeol can’t have gotten far. His nose twitches in annoyance as he shifts his weight, preparing to turn around and walk back to his motorcycle to report this strange behavior to headquarters.

He doesn’t even make it one step. There’s a blur of movement in front of him, too quick for him to be able to react, then a sharp pain at the base of his skull, and then darkness. His body crumples onto the asphalt below, and he catches a glimpse of Chanyeol’s bright red hair as his eyes flutter shut.

His last conscious thought is, _Well. Fuck._

-

Minseok wakes up to quite possibly the worst headache he’s ever had. Pain radiates from the back of his head, pulsing through his brain in a way that kind of makes it feel like it’s being put through a blender. His limbs ache, too, and his wrists and ankles feel like they’ve been rubbed raw with sandpaper.

The second thing he registers is light – bright, white, blinding light. He squeezes his eyes shut against it as he adjusts, slowly blinking them open when it starts to feel like maybe his retinas won’t burn off the second they lose the protection of his eyelids. The room he’s in is almost completely empty, save for the bed he’s lying on – no, scratch that, save for the bed he’s _tied to_. His first instinct is to panic, to yank at cuffs holding him in place, but doing that presses the rough leather tight against the bloodied skin of his wrists and ankles, so he quickly gives up.

The walls are white, bare plaster with dents and chips in it. There’s a bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling on a wire, and a metal toilet and sink in the corner that he really wishes he could use right now because his bladder is screaming almost loud enough to drown out the low undercurrent of panic cutting through the fog in his brain.

His training kicks in, and he starts scanning the room for exits. There’s only one: a metal door, with no handle on the inside, probably at least a foot thick. That’s not an option. The walls and ceiling could be more promising – the plaster looks cheap, and it’s already falling apart in places, so he might be able to pry it out of the way and find an opening below. Of course, it’s a moot point until he figures out how to get rid of these goddamn cuffs.

“Fuck,” he swears under his breath. He’s been in some dangerous situations before, sure – it comes with the job – but he’s never felt quite so helpless. He flexes his fingers. Maybe if he could freeze the metal chains attaching the cuffs to the bedframe, he could pull hard enough to break them…

He takes a deep breath, closes his eyes and concentrates. He can feel the ice creeping its way out of his fingers, onto the leather of the cuffs and down the metal chains like it’s an extension of his body (and in some ways, it is). He’s almost done coating the chains on his wrist cuffs and is about to move on to the ankle ones when his concentration is shattered by a disembodied chuckle floating through the room.

“Um… What the fuck?” he says, eloquent as ever.

He zeroes in on the source of the sound. It turns out it’s coming from a little speaker tucked away in one corner of the room, right next to a camera. He mentally berates himself for not having noticed that before. It seems like he might need to do one of those refresher training courses the higher ups are always suggesting. If he ever makes it out of here alive, that is.

“That’s not going to work,” the voice says. “You’re wasting your energy. The chains are specifically designed to resist at extreme temperatures.”

Minseok scowls. The voice is annoyingly familiar. Deep, raspy, smug as all hell – it’s fucking Chanyeol.

He can’t contain the growl that escapes his throat, rage-filled and almost feral sounding. “I’m gonna get out of here,” he swears, “and I’m gonna fucking kill you.”

Chanyeol laughs, loud and a little unhinged, sounding every bit like the crazy fucking bastard that he is.

“Good luck with that,” he says. “Anyway, once you’ve calmed down a bit, I’ll send someone in to undo your cuffs. I’m sure you don’t want to piss yourself, so you’d better relax, babe.”

Minseok snarls, again. Something about Chanyeol drives him fucking insane. “Don’t fucking call me that,” he spits.

“Well then what am I supposed to call you?” Chanyeol asks, and Minseok can hear the mocking pout in his voice. “I don’t know your real name.”

Minseok sighs, and relaxes onto the lumpy mattress beneath him, all the fight draining out of his body. There’s point in trying to fight right now, when he’s strapped to a bed and Chanyeol is nothing but a disembodied voice in his ear. He sighs, long and loud.

“My name is Minseok,” he whispers. Chanyeol, wisely, says nothing else, and Minseok hears the click of the speaker turning off just before he drifts back to sleep.

-

When he wakes again, the cuffs are gone, and he’s in a different room. It’s just as sparsely furnished as the last one, but the mattress is a little more comfortable, and there’s a screen separating the toilet and shower from the rest of the room to give the illusion of privacy. Most notably, instead of the white walls and thick metal door of the last room, this one has three walls made of rough concrete, and one made of floor to ceiling metal bars with three-inch gaps between them – not enough for Minseok to slip through, but definitely enough to have a conversation through. Minseok frowns. If this means he’s going to have to talk to Chanyeol face to face, he would have preferred to stay in the other room, despite the bright light and the cuffs.

He sits up on the bed, gaze still fixed firmly on the bars. Now that he’s awake, it probably won’t be long until Chanyeol shows up. He hurries to use the toilet before he’s no longer alone, and once he’s done washing his hands, he lies down on the bed again.

There’s nothing to do other than trace the patterns drawn on the ceiling by water damage with his eyes. He stares up at them until the dirty little squiggles turn into recognizable shapes – a cat, a cloud, a snowflake. Chanyeol still hasn’t shown up.

With a sigh, Minseok stands up and walks over to the bars, grabbing them and pulling as hard as he can. Unsurprisingly, they don’t budge. He scowls.

“If you want something from me, you’d better come ask for it now before I die of boredom,” he says to the empty room. There’s no response. He sighs again, and flops back onto the bed. His eyelids start to flutter shut, and he’s about to drift off again when there’s a sound from the hallway outside his cell.

His eyes snap open and he jumps off the bed, body stiff as a board. Footsteps echo around the cell, expensive leather on dirty concrete, and suddenly Chanyeol is standing in front of him, staring at him through the bars with an amused little smirk on his face.

“Minseok,” he says. Minseok just stares at him, muscles coiled with tension. “I like that name a lot better than Xiumin,” Chanyeol muses. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

Minseok scowls, and resists the urge to spit in Chanyeol’s face.

“Aw, don’t ignore me,” Chanyeol pouts. It’s absolutely fucking infuriating, and all Minseok wants is for the bars to disappear so that he can punch Chanyeol in the face. He keeps his mouth firmly shut, and Chanyeol hums, considering.

“You’re really very pretty, you know,” he says, and Minseok is so shocked that his mask almost slips. “It’s a shame you’re so…” he waves a hand around in the air – “self-righteous, I suppose. I might have considered asking you out on a date, otherwise.”

“Um…” Minseok says, breaking his self-imposed vow of silence out of sheer confusion. “What the fuck? Why am I here?”

Chanyeol actually laughs at that. The temperature in the room drops by several degrees as Minseok’s anger intensifies.

“Oh, don’t get angry, sweetheart!” Chanyeol exclaims. “I just thought – well, we’ve been fighting each other for so long, and over what? I think life would be so much more pleasant if we learned to get along, wouldn’t you agree?”

Minseok raises an eyebrow at him. “And you thought fucking _kidnapping_ me would be the best way to resolve our differences?”

“Well, it’s not like you would have been willing to talk to me any other way. Really, what have I done to make you hate me so much, darling?”

“Robbed banks? Put the lives of thousands of people at risk? Called me _short_?” Minseok spits. Chanyeol throws his head back and laughs, loud and deep and infuriatingly attractive.

“Oh, _that’s_ what you’re so mad about, darling? I only meant to say you’re very cute. It’s not a bad thing, I promise.”

Minseok grits his teeth and resists the urge to protest. He knows, objectively, that he is cute. His big eyes, soft cheeks, thin, rosy lips are striking, yet delicate enough that he is pretty without being intimidating.

“You could have been a little more tactful about it,” he grunts. “And if you were trying to apologize, _not_ locking me in a cell would be a good way to go about it.”

Chanyeol pouts at him, looking exactly like a kicked puppy. “You would never have listened to me! You would have fought me and run away.” Minseok can’t deny that, so he stays silent.

“And I’m sorry for what I said when we first met,” Chanyeol continues, eyes wide and sincere. “I can’t pretend that I didn’t think, at first, that you might be weak. But you proved me wrong.”

Minseok stares him down, considering, before breaking into a grin. “And I will again, if I need to.”

Chanyeol grins right back. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. Now, let’s get you out of this awful cell, shall we?”

Minseok nods, waits as he unlocks the door and follows him out into the hallway. Chanyeol leads him through a complex network of narrow, twisting hallways that seems to go on forever, until they reach an area that looks a little more lived in. The walls here are painted a calming pastel blue shade. Chanyeol opens a wooden, white-painted door and ushers Minseok inside with a sweeping, dramatic gesture.

“Go ahead,” he says. “I thought you might want to shower before we continue our little chat.”

Minseok shivers in delight at the thought of warm water and sweet-smelling soap on his skin, and nods enthusiastically.

The bathroom is decorated in shades of light blue and white, like the hallway. There are several bottles of shampoo and soap already stacked on a ledge inside the shower, and fluffy white towels hanging from a rack in the corner.

The door clicks shut behind Minseok, and he starts to strip with a relieved sigh. His suit sticks to his skin at the back of his neck from dried blood, and he winces. Stepping into the shower is like walking into heaven, the warm water endlessly soothing on his skin. He scrubs the blood and grime off of his skin until it turns pink from the friction, then stands under the spray and lets the hot water beat the tension out of muscles for as long as he can reasonably justify.

He spends an inordinate amount of time just rubbing the soft, fluffy fabric of the towels against his face when he gets out, feeling sort of like he’s stepped into a particularly puffy, inviting cloud. Sighing at the thought of having to leave this little cocoon of comfort, he dries himself off as thoroughly as possible and- freezes.

 _Shit_. He’s an idiot. He forgot to ask Chanyeol for clean clothes, and he’s certainly not about to put his dirty, bloodied suit back on. A towel wrapped around his hips will have to do. He steps out into the hallway to search for Chanyeol in this absolute labyrinth of a place.

Luck seems to be on his side – he finds Chanyeol behind the second door he opens, lounging back on a queen-sized bed. The other man jumps up as soon as he catches sight of him, blushing from the base of his neck to the tips of his ears.

“Oh, Minseok! I’m so sorry, I thought it would be creepy of me to wait outside, I thought I’d hear when you came out, I was gonna…” He trails off the minute his eyes land on Minseok’s exposed torso. Minseok smiles, and flexes, just because he can. He swears Chanyeol’s jaw drops noticeably.

“Um…” he says, voice quiet and a little hoarse, “do you want some clothes?”

“I wouldn’t mind,” Minseok answers, “but it seems like you might prefer if I stayed like this, so I’ll let you decide.”

Chanyeol blushes, stammers, and eventually settles on just burying his face in his hands. Minseok laughs at him for real this time, loud and unabashed, and Chanyeol flops back onto the bed with a defeated little sound. He’s very cute when he’s not calling him short or trying to kill him, Minseok muses. He tilts his head, considers, lets his eyes wander along the length of Chanyeol’s body, spread out on the bed in a way that shows off the lean planes of his stomach and chest and his long, long legs. Maybe… he supposes it wouldn’t hurt.

So he climbs up onto the bed next to Chanyeol, grabs his wrists and pulls his hands away from his flushed face. From this close, he can feel the way Chanyeol’s body radiates heat, the perfect contrast to the coolness of his own skin.

“Chanyeol,” he breathes, hovering over him so that Chanyeol has no choice but to look him in the eyes. “Do you want this?”

“Want what?” Chanyeol says, voice trembling ever so slightly.

“You know exactly what I mean,” Minseok answers, letting his upper body drop down until his naked torso is pressed flush against Chanyeol’s still clothed abdomen and their lips are scant centimeters away from each other. He can feel Chanyeol’s heart jackrabbiting against his own chest, can feel the heat of his half-hard dick pressed up against his thigh, and he knows Chanyeol wants this too, but he needs him to say yes.

Finally, after what feels like an eternity of waiting, trying to stop himself from leaning down and devouring Chanyeol’s mouth, Chanyeol nods, lets his eyes flutter shut and tilts his head up, lips slightly parted, and Minseok swoops down and claims them. Chanyeol is soft, warm and pliant against him, the complete opposite of how he usually is when they fight, and everything is so different – soft sheets and dim lighting instead of skyscrapers and asphalt. Minseok can’t help but think that he likes this a lot better.

He bites down gently on Chanyeol’s bottom lip, and he whines into his mouth, high and needy in a way that drives Minseok a little insane.

“Fuck,” he breathes, pulling back a little and resting his forehead against Chanyeol’s. “Let’s get you out of your clothes.”

Chanyeol nods, red hair flopping across his forehead, and sits up to pull his shirt over his head, revealing a lean, built torso, visible abs under a thin layer of softness and perky, inviting nipples. Minseok moans his approval, and leans down to attach his mouth to one of them, flicking his tongue against the little nub until Chanyeol whines high in his throat and threads his fingers through Minseok’s silvery hair to pull at it.

When he bites down, Chanyeol arches his back and spreads his legs wide, pressing his erection against Minseok’s lower belly, hard and hot and big enough that Minseok is almost disappointed that he’s going to be the one topping in this situation. Almost, but not quite – Chanyeol is so pliant, so responsive, so needy, so willing, and Minseok knows fucking him is going to be an experience he’ll never forget.

Reaching down, he fumbles at the button and zipper of Chanyeol’s pants under he finally gets them undone, and shoves both his pants and underwear down his legs in one movement, pulling back just long enough to help him pull them off his feet. When Chanyeol is naked, he sits back on his heels to admire him for a moment, the long line of his torso, the peachy flush working its way down his chest, the way the skin around his nipple where he’d bitten down is already turning red. He’s so beautiful, he takes a few seconds to regret not having done this before, before Chanyeol’s whining pulls him out of his thoughts.

“Minseok, I wanna see you too,” he pouts, and Minseok chuckles, and indulges him. He pulls the towel away from his hips, and kneels up to allow Chanyeol to look his fill. “You’re so hot, Min,” he breathes, reaching out to run his hands down Minseok’s pecs, his abs, his thighs, and finally his dick. Minseok groans, quiet and breathy, and throws his head back as Chanyeol plays with his cock, coaxing a little precum out of the slit and bringing it to his lips to taste.

That’s all it takes for Minseok to snap and lose his patience. With a grunt, he pushes Chanyeol back onto the bed and grabs his thighs, pulling them apart and pressing a dry finger against his perineum. Chanyeol yelps and squirms at the touch, still reaching for Minseok’s cock with those long, elegant fingers of his.

“Lube?” Minseok grunts, a little too distracted for full sentences. Chanyeol throws an arm out to rummage in the bedside table for a second, and pulls out a bottle of a lube and a condom. Minseok quickly slicks his fingers up and wastes no time as he pushes the first one into Chanyeol, moaning at the sheer _heat_ that surrounds it. He’s not sure how he’s going to survive actually getting his dick inside Chanyeol.

“Fuck,” he swears, dropping his head down to rest his forehead against Chanyeol’s shoulder, “you feel so _good_.” Chanyeol answers with a moan, grinding his hips against Minseok’s hand, silently begging for another finger. Minseok complies, sliding a second finger in and scissoring him, stretching him open, getting him ready for his cock, which twitches at the thought.

“ _Min_!” Chanyeol whines, grabbing at Minseok’s biceps with a grip weakened by pleasure. “I can’t wait, you need to get your cock inside me!”

Minseok shushes him, petting his belly with his free hand to calm him. “I can’t yet, darling, I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You _won’t_ ,” Chanyeol pouts, but Minseok ignores him, continuing to pump his fingers in and out of the other man’s hot body. When he feels Chanyeol loosen up enough, he pushes a third in, and curls them up towards Chanyeol’s belly, searching. He knows he’s found what he’s looking for when Chanyeol gasps, body going tense all of a sudden and hole clenching around his fingers. He pets that spot for a few moments, enjoying the way Chanyeol writhes and moans, the way his rim flutters, but lets up pretty quickly. After all, he doesn’t want Chanyeol to come before he manages to get his dick inside him.

“Please please _please_ fuck me already!” Chanyeol begs, looking up at Minseok with wide, shiny eyes, and who could possibly resist him? Minseok pulls his fingers out, tears open the condom and slides it onto his length as Chanyeol hums contentedly, rearranging himself on the bed to make things more comfortable for the both of them.

He ends up on his knees and elbows, back arched and ass presented, looking over his shoulder at Minseok. Minseok bites back several moans, and lines himself up behind Chanyeol, pressing the head of his cock against his loosened hole. Chanyeol gasps and bites down on his fist as Minseok pushes in, spreading and stretching him open. Minseok drapes himself across Chanyeol’s back, and pulls his hand out of his mouth.

“I want to hear you, darling,” he murmurs into Chanyeol’s ear as he bottoms out, pulling a strained moan from Chanyeol’s throat.

“O-okay,” he whimpers, hole clenching and unclenching around Minseok’s dick as he adjusts to the stretch. Minseok groans into his shoulder and waits, arms trembling slightly as he struggles to hold back from just pounding into Chanyeol’s hot body.

“You can – you can move,” Chanyeol whispers after a few moments of silence, and Minseok immediately pulls back, letting Chanyeol feel every ridge and vein on his cock before he pushes back in with a powerful snap of his hips.

Chanyeol’s mouth drops open, letting out a constant stream of moans and whimpers as Minseok pounds into him, barely in control of himself as the heat of Chanyeol’s body overwhelms him. He’s so hot and tight inside that it almost hurts, balancing on the knife-like edge between pleasure and pain, and Minseok fucking loves it. It’s the perfect contrast to his ice, and he can’t help but think that this is what they were supposed to be doing all along, instead of fighting.

Chanyeol’s moans keep rising in volume as Minseok thrusts harder and harder into him, and Minseok can’t believe how incredibly _pretty_ he sounds, deep moans breaking into high-pitched whines as Minseok targets his sweet spot, slowing to a deliberate grind to maximize Chanyeol’s pleasure.

The man underneath him starts babbling, completely overwhelmed, and Minseok lets up, dropping a gentle kiss to Chanyeol’s shoulder blade and reverting to a slow, deep pace that lets Chanyeol feel every single inch of his cock.

“Feels s-so good,” the younger man whimpers into the sheets, and Minseok feels his dick twitch at the praise.

“Yeah?” he grunts, “Am I making you feel good, baby?”

“Yes! Yes, so good, don’t stop!” Chanyeol cries, and Minseok picks up the pace again, sweat dripping down his forehead, making their naked bodies stick together. Chanyeol’s back arches until his chest is pressed against the mattress, cock dripping precum into the sheets.

“You wanna cum, baby? You gonna cum?” Minseok groans, feeling his own orgasm approach, almost embarrassingly fast.

Chanyeol moans, reaching back blindly to grasp one of Minseok’s hands. “Yes! Please, please touch me,” he begs, tossing his head from side to side, the firetruck red of his hair looking ethereally beautiful against the stark white of the sheets. With a muttered curse, Minseok reaches around his body to wrap a hand around his thick, leaking cock. Just like his hole, it’s so _hot_ it almost burns his palm, and he can’t help but wonder what it would feel like inside him. He barely has time to stroke the length a couple times and dig his thumb into the slit before Chanyeol’s body is tensing up, muscles trembling. He lets out a few more broken moans, voice raspy and ruined, before he’s relaxing and coming into the sheets with one last whimper.

Minseok follows not long after, just a few more thrusts before he’s spilling into the overwhelming heat of Chanyeol’s body. He stays there for a few minutes after they’re done, just breathing, pressing gentle kisses across Chanyeol’s shoulders and soaking in his presence.

Chanyeol eventually protests, grumbling about how he’s heavy, and he pulls out and away with a chuckle, helping Chanyeol move up the bed so he doesn’t accidentally lie down in his own mess. Pulling off the condom, he stumbles over to the trash can on shaky legs before collapsing back onto the bed next to Chanyeol with a satisfied sigh.

The taller man wraps himself around him like a very large, very sweaty koala, burying his nose in Minseok’s hair with a contented little hum. “Thank you,” he whispers, lips pressed against Minseok’s skull, and Minseok frowns.

“For what?” he asks.

“For hearing me out. And for making me feel better than anyone else ever has.”

Minseok smiles, and reaches up to lace his fingers with Chanyeol’s.

“You’re very welcome,” he murmurs, thumb tracing patterns against the back of Chanyeol’s hand as his eyelids flutter shut and their breathing slows. Soon enough, they’re both asleep, curled up around each other, red and silver, hot and cold, fire and ice. The air around them seems to hum with power, harmonious in a way that it has never been before. The sun sets outside, Minseok shuffles closer to Chanyeol in his sleep, and things are as they should be.

-

Minseok wakes up warmer than he’s ever been before. There’s a heavy weight on top of him, and his first instinct is to kick it off, but the weight shifts, hums and cuddles closer to him, and the memories of the previous day rush back. _Chanyeol_. He had kidnapped him, locked him up in two different cells, presented him with a terrible apology, and then, for some reason, Minseok had decided that it would be a good idea to fuck him. Looking down at Chanyeol’s sleeping face, he understands past Minseok’s reasoning. Chanyeol really is very pretty, especially with his fiery red hair falling into his eyes and his face relaxed in sleep.

Still, Minseok needs to leave. He needs to go back to the office and report on the events of the last day – and really, just thinking about that gives him a headache – and he needs to go home and reassure his family that he’s okay, and he needs to feed his cat, and he thinks he left a load of laundry in the washing-machine too. So he gently shakes Chanyeol awake.

The younger man protests and pushes him away, but eventually opens his eyes. Minseok is almost immediately blinded by the most stunning smile he’s ever seen, and all of a sudden all those things he needs to do seem a lot less important. Still, he has responsibilities.

“Chanyeol,” he murmurs, stroking the hair out of his face. “I need to go.” Chanyeol pouts at him, but doesn’t protest.

Minseok dresses in clothes from Chanyeol’s closet, having to roll the pants up several times to be able to walk without tripping over them. Before he leaves the room, he pauses, and turns back to look at Chanyeol, lounging on the bed in the morning sunlight and staring at him.

“Chanyeol,” he says, then pauses, trying to get his thoughts together before he speaks. “Does this mean… Are you going to stop with all the um… crimes?” He cringes at himself internally. God, could he really not have worded that better?

Chanyeol looks at him with something melancholic and bittersweet in his eyes. “You know it doesn’t work like that, Minseok,” he says. Minseok sighs, then nods. He doesn’t know what he expected. Chanyeol has proven himself to be a lot less insufferable than he had originally thought, yes, but at the end of the day, they’re still complete opposites, enemies on a biological level.

He turns to leave, but a sharp intake of breath from behind him stop him in his tracks. Chanyeol is sitting up on the bed, skin glowing in the golden light, and he looks – like this, he looks like a promise, like something dangerous, like heartbreak. Minseok stays, and watches him.

“Minseok,” he breathes, soft and sweet in the stillness of the early morning. “I’ll look forward to seeing you again.”

Minseok smiles at him, turns, and leaves. The air around him feels warmer, somehow, even when he is alone.

And Chanyeol is right – they do meet again. Very often, in fact. Every week at least, Minseok will spot a towering pillar of smoke rising up from somewhere in the city, and Chanyeol will be waiting for him there. They will fight, fire against ice, too well matched for either of them to ever emerge victorious, and they will destroy everything around them, and Minseok will get scolded by the higher-ups.

And later, when night falls and the moon rises over the city, they will fall into bed together, hot and cold, and they will kiss and love each other, and still they will destroy, because fire and ice together can only bring destruction, but together they will remain, cocooned inside the sheets, safe, warm, consumed by each other’s presence.

And then the sun will rise, and they will start over.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!! if you enjoyed please leave a kudos and a comment, i would really appreciate it  
> and please stay safe and take care of yourselves and your family in these difficult times <3


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